Tickets will go on sale to the public online at vaculive.com or in-person at The National Box Office at 708 East Broad Street in Richmond, Va. on Friday, Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. Virginia Credit Union and RICHMOND NATION members will receive an exclusive pre-sale for the Young the Giant and Fitz and the Tantrums concert on Thursday, Feb. 21 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Young the Giant

Young the Giant was originally formed as The Jakes in Irvine, Calif. in 2004. The band is made up of Sameer Gadhia on vocals, Jacob Tilley on guitar, Eric Cannata on guitar and vocals, Payam Doostzadeh on bass, and Francois Comtois on drums and vocals. The band members met in high school, but formed their own band following graduation. By 2009, the band was opening for Kings of Leon, playing at South by Southwest, and signed with Roadrunner Records.

The band officially changed their name to Young the Giant with the release of their debut LP, Young the Giant, which included the hits “My Body” and “Cough Syrup.” The band followed their success with albums Mind Over Matter in 2014 and Home of the Strange in 2016 building upon their brand of modern rock. Their second album reached number seven on Billboard’s Top 200. This led the band to become radio and festival favorites with appearances at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and Austin City Limits.

The band released their fourth album, Mirror Master, in 2018. The album is a layered meditation on identity in modern life, an emotionally charged look at the dangers of illusion and possibilities of freedom.

“Within one single day, we’re all so many different people,” says Gadhia, lead vocalist for the L.A.-based band. “Especially with the use of social media, we’re not just living in the now—we’re living on several different timelines simultaneously. At a time when everyone wants to put each other in a box—culturally, socially, musically—we wanted to show that there are a multitude of reflections inside everything. We don’t have to be a certain thing; we can contradict ourselves and show all these different sides of who we are.”

In bringing Mirror Master to life, Young the Giant applied that sense of openness and imagination to every aspect of the creative process. Working with producers like John Hill (Santigold, Florence + the Machine), Alex Salibian (who worked on Home of the Strange), and TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, the band purposely upended songwriting formula and took an intuitive approach to constructing each track, always emphasizing substance over style.

Proving their instinctive ingenuity, Young the Giant ultimately created a genre-defying and dynamic album, one that transforms the complexity of its themes into music with a mesmerizing quality. Young the Giant hope to offer not only unfettered honesty, but the inspiration and encouragement to help listeners take charge of their own narratives.

“Even though it may all be an illusion, there’s solace in that illusion,” Gadhia says. “Because if you have control of anything at all, it’s your own reflection, how you treat people and how you walk through this life. Don’t let people feed you what they want you to think. Do what makes you happy, and realize and that all is good and all is horrible and everything else in between.”

Fitz and the Tantrums

Since forming in 2008, Fitz and the Tantrums have always been a band focused on evolving. Their lively sonic mix of '80s New Wave, blue-eyed soul, disco, and dance-pop, the band has always used celebratory music as a way to break down social barriers and bring people together.

Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick, a longtime studio engineer and aspiring musician, formed the group in 2008, driven simply by “a need to be creative and not lose my mind over a breakup.” The band is made up of Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick on vocals, James King on saxophone and flute, Jeremy Ruzumna on keyboards, Joseph Karnes on bass, and John Wicks on drums and percussion.

The band made a splash with the soulful R&B-revival sound of their debut album, 2010’s Pickin’ Up The Pieces released on Dangerbird Records. In 2013, the band offered up a New Wave-influenced dance-pop sound with its sophomore album and Elektra Records debut, More Than Just A Dream. The album featured the gold-certified and #1 Alternative Radio singles “The Walker” and “Out of My League.” The album’s success sent Fitz and the Tantrums on a two-year touring odyssey, which enabled the Los Angeles-based sextet — known for its explosive, no-holds barred live shows — to cement themselves as one of the country’s hottest live acts.

“We felt incredibly validated by the reception to More Than Just A Dream,” says the band’s co-vocalist Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick. “We knew we could pull from many different styles and create a truly hybrid form of music, and do it in a way that felt authentic. At that point, we felt even more empowered to do whatever we wanted creatively.”

For their next album, the band turned to outside collaborators for the first time — the songwriters and producers Sam Hollander (Panic! At The Disco), Wallpaper’s Ricky Reed (Twenty-One Pilots), Jesse Shatkin (Sia, Matt & Kim), and Joel Little (Lorde).

The result was Fitz and the Tantrums’ most emotionally connected record yet and one that centers on the theme of desire. That transformative experience — further bolstered by the album’s diverse palette of musical influences including hip-hop, trap music, reggae, and world music rhythms played on 808s — is something Fitz and the Tantrums have always strived to deliver. One of the first songs written for their third album, Fitz and the Tantrums, was the single “HandClap,” which garnered over a million streams on Spotify its first week out.

The Commonwealth Mall at Virginia Credit Union LIVE! will feature concessions, displays, and merchandise on the day of the event, with gates opening at 6:00 p.m. Parking for the event is located in Lot D, at the corner of Laburnum and Carolina Avenues, and can be accessed through Gate 4 on Laburnum Avenue. Parking is $10 cash only for the public and free for Virginia Credit Union members with lots opening at 5:00 p.m.

Virginia Credit Union LIVE! continues to bring top musical acts and superior concert experiences to music fans in the Richmond region. The venue has hosted top national recording artists such as Aerosmith, Sting, Jimmy Buffett, Dave Matthews Band, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, and Florida Georgia Line.

In addition to its 6,000 covered seats, the venue hosts six permanent private dressing rooms with restrooms and showers attached to the stage as well as two loading docks. There is a separate hospitality building providing a full menu of food and beverage amenities. The backstage area is completely secured with ample room for parking large vehicles and tour buses.

Virginia Credit Union LIVE! continues to bring top musical acts and superior concert experiences to music fans in the Richmond region. The venue has hosted top national recording artists such as Aerosmith, Sting, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Buffett, Dave Matthews Band, Florida Georgia Line, and The Lumineers. This year’s Virginia Credit Union LIVE! concert season looks to be one of the best in the venue’s history. Tickets for previously announced shows are available for purchase unless otherwise specified.

Juice WRLD will take the stage of Virginia Credit Union LIVE! on Tuesday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. Juice WRLD will be promoting his new album, A Deathrace for Love, will be released on March 8.

The 1975, one of the most popular pop-rock bands in the world, will bring their North American Tour to Virginia Credit Union LIVE! on Wednesday, May 22 at 7 p.m. The popular British pop-rock group’s tour is in support of their critically-acclaimed new album, “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships.”

The Avett Brothers, one of thetop folk-rock acts in the country, perform their iconic sound to Virginia Credit Union LIVE! on Sunday, June 9 at 7:30 p.m. This will be the band’s first performance at the venue since July 25, 2013.

As part of Eastern League All-Star Week, Richmond and the Richmond Flying Squirrels have partnered for the All-Star Country Music Jam headlined by Big & Rich with special guests Cowboy Troy and DJ Sinister at Virginia Credit Union LIVE! on Monday, July 8 at 7 p.m. Tickets go on sale to the public online at vaculive.com, via phone at 866-455-7223, and at the Richmond Raceway Ticket Office at 600 E. Laburnum Avenue, Richmond, Va. on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 10 a.m.

JoJo Siwa’sD.R.E.A.M. The Tour will be showcased at Virginia Credit Union LIVE!on Thursday, July 18 at 7 p.m. The D.R.E.A.M. tour will bring the viral Nickelodeon superstar’s youthful energy to the Virginia Credit Union LIVE! stage to highlight some of her certified platinum singles.

Tickets for the Toyota Spring Race Weekend on April 12-13 and Fall Playoff Race Weekend on Sept. 20-21 are available for purchase in-person at the Richmond Ticket Office, via phone at 866-455-7223, or online at richmondraceway.com.

The Pro All Stars Series (PASS) will run the inaugural PASS Commonwealth Classic on Saturday, March 30 at Richmond. The PASS Super Late Models will headline the day with feature events for Tour-Type Modifieds, MASS Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, and American-Canadian Tour (ACT) Late Models. To learn more, visit proallstarseries.com.